Help your community's dogs with separation anxiety - Ep 44
Release Date: 05/27/2021
Shelter Success Simplified
GUEST: Scott Giacoppo. Scott is the Director of National Shelter Outreach for Best Friends Animal Society and oversees the development of lifesaving efficacy and sustainability for animal welfare partners across the U.S. Prior to Best Friends, Scott was president of NACA – the National Animal Care & Control Association – as well as chief of Animal Field Services for the District of Columbia for 10 years, overseeing all animal control and cruelty investigations team members for Humane Rescue Alliance. He began his animal protection career with the Massachusetts Society for the...
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GUEST: Kimberly Wade. Kimberly is an expert consultant for Humane Network focusing on communications and social media. She was campaign manager for Maddie's Pet Project in Nevada, communications director at Nevada Humane Society, news producer at KOLO 8 News Now, and has a degree in broadcast journalism and communications from the University of Central Florida. MAIN QUESTION: What are some tips for animal organizations to create better social media pages and posts? TAKEAWAYS: If you don’t have a photo, you don’t have a story. To take good photos, avoid a busy background. Get a...
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GUEST: Brent Toellner. Brent is the Senior Director of National Programs for Best Friends Animal Society. Prior to joining Best Friends, Brent, his wife, Michelle, and a few others co-founded the Kansas City Pet Project to run the municipal shelter in Kansas City, Missouri. MAIN QUESTION: There's a lot of pressure in animal welfare and people can feel alone in their work — what tips and ideas might help? TAKEAWAYS: In animal welfare, we’re pushed to do more with limited resources. People often feel they just need to work harder and do more programs, but that doesn’t work in the...
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Main question: What are the common issues you find when doing organizational assessments of animal organizations around the country?
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MAIN QUESTION: How does Doobert's new Companion Case Management module improve communications with the public?
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Question: How can animal organizations better meet people where they're at?
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GUEST: Kat Albrecht-Thiessen is a pioneer in lost pet investigations. She was a police officer, bloodhound handler, crime scene investigator, and search-and-rescue manager before beginning to apply her skills in 1997 to finding lost pets. She is founder of Missing Animal Response Network and author of the book “Pet Tracker.”
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QUESTION: How can animal organizations build a healthy workplace culture, which is so important in a competitive job market?
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What works to engage more members of the community with our animal welfare work so that we can raise more funds — and what doesn't work?
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GUEST: Diane Blankenburg is CEO & Co-Founder of Humane Network.
info_outlineGUEST: Kelley Bollen is a Certified Animal Behavior Consultant with a master’s degree in Animal Behavior who has worked in the field of companion animal behavior for twenty years. Kelley is the Owner and Principal Consultant for Kelley Bollen Consulting – an animal behavior consulting business that works with animal shelters across the country on the design and implementation of comprehensive behavior programs to improve the welfare of the animals. She leads Humane Network’s Alive & Thriving animal behavior training program for shelter and clinic staff. And Kelley teaches a new Animal Shelter Behavior Management Certificate Course through the University of the Pacific.
MAIN QUESTION: How can shelters and rescue groups help people in their community with dogs who have separation anxiety issues?
TAKEAWAYS:
- Actively reach out to the people in your community now (especially people who adopted a dog within the past year), with ideas to help them prepare their pets for when they return to work in an office in order to help prevent the development of separation anxiety.
- If a dog can’t be content in one room while their person is in another, then there will likely be problems when the person is outside the home for extended periods.
- Here are a few behavior tips to share with your community:
- Be low-key when you leave and when you return.
- Make your departure fun by hiding treats around the home and/or giving a Kong-type toy filled with mushy food, like canned pet food.
- Practice leaving and returning for increasing lengths of time, starting with 30 seconds, so the dog gets used to you going and coming back. Take the dog’s Kong when you return so the dog wants you to stay away longer.
- Leave a radio or TV on when you're gone to give the dog some company.
- Give the dog 10 to 15 minutes of aerobic exercise before leaving such as running up and down stairs or chasing a ball in the backyard.
LINKS:
- Kelley Bollen Consulting
- Video presentation on independence training for dogs by Kelley Bollen
- Separation anxiety behavior tips by Kelley Bollen that organizations can print and give to adopters or people who contact them with concerns
- Leadership recommendation: Sample fraud policy by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners